Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-11-Speech-2-583-000"
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"en.20120911.39.2-583-000"2
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"Madam President, honourable Members, 18 months of fighting have seen over 25 000 people dead in Syria, with many countless more made homeless or injured by the situation. August was the bloodiest month since the conflict began, and we have all recognised the appalling human rights violations and the destruction of the infrastructure of the country and of its cultural heritage.
But the truth is that, despite all the efforts, the international community is, in a sense, at a deadlock. The six-point plan has not been implemented, the UN Security Council has not been able to agree on a common response that could open the way for a political solution. And the opposition, in spite of some real progress which we felt was being made in Cairo at the beginning of July under the supervision of the Arab League, remains fragmented. We do not yet have a real alternative to the regime in power and an alternative that is truly inclusive, something that I know that honourable Members feel very strongly about.
It is obvious that the regime is so clearly responsible for the conflict and that the parties have to do everything possible to find a solution, but we have a collective responsibility and we cannot wait. One would argue that the Syrian people have waited for far too long and this stalemate could drag on, which would have impacts not only on the terrible things that are happening in Syria but beyond into the region.
The priority we have to have, beyond continuing to provide humanitarian aid and support, increasing it, working with Member States, working with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent and working with those who are providing support to the UN, is to find a way to reduce and stop the violence and the killing. We have to do everything we possibly can to find ways to promote this political transition and we have to be ready for the post-conflict moment, for the period of transition towards what we want to see, which is democracy. Our approach has to change in a sense; we have to make real progress on this.
I raised all this with the Foreign Ministers at the Gymnich meeting at the weekend. It was clear, of course, that we are absolutely united that Assad has to go and that we need to see this political transition move forward. We agree that, whilst the humanitarian track is an absolute priority and we must consistently urge the regime and the opposition groups to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, we have to continue to work on a number of different tracks: political, diplomatic and support for the opposition groups to come together and plan for the future.
On the political and diplomatic track, the EU Ministers reaffirmed their support for Mr Brahimi as the UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative. I have offered him our expertise and our operational assistance in what is an extremely challenging task. He is working with the Security Council, with the neighbouring countries, with the Arab League and with us. I remind honourable Members that our delegation remains open in Damascus and is ready to assist him and his team in any way. I have made that offer very clear to him and he and I will meet for a long discussion when we meet the General Assembly in New York, where we have a meeting arranged and where we will also be meeting the Secretary-General of the Arab League together in order to look at what we can do regionally.
We have to carry on urging a political solution and we have to devote our efforts to find a way to make contact with those who are striving for a peaceful process and that means continuing our outreach on the ground, which we do through the people we have on the ground and through all the contracts that we have as well.
We have to bring the efforts together because without the support for Mr Brahimi, it will be impossible for him to be able to coordinate and find the tangible results. We did everything we could to support Kofi Annan in what he sought to do to try and work to get the Security Council to be able to come together. We need to continue our diplomatic efforts involving all the key partners. I remain in regular touch with Russia, with China, with all the neighbours of Syria, with all the regional organisations I have already described and, of course, with Ban Ki-moon, with whom I talked about this a few days ago.
I will meet again with all of them as well as with Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary Clinton in 10 days’ time in New York. It is absolutely going to be the focus of the UN General Assembly, where I hope we will take the opportunity to seriously discuss and make some progress across the United Nations on this. I believe the Security Council has to work tirelessly to find common ground to support Mr Brahimi. It is absolutely essential that he gets that full support and is able to work in Syria and develop the mission.
One of the issues that I have already touched upon is the need to make sure that we work to support the opposition parties. I have said that we need to find ways of bringing them together and to help and support them to be able to find a transitional government that is ready to move forward. That means bringing all the efforts that are currently going on to do that together so that there is a common approach and a general move forward in that direction.
So, we have the humanitarian aid support, which needs to increase, needs to be tangible, needs to reach people and communities. We have the support from Mr Brahimi in the efforts that he is making to try and find a political solution with the support of everyone, so that the United Nations works together to find the common ground to push forward on this and that we work with the opposition groups, both inside and outside, to find the common ground that can bring together the transitional government-in-waiting and push forward in support of the people.
The situation in terms of humanitarian needs has got worse. We have over 230 000 refugees who have escaped into neighbouring countries and 2.5 million inside Syria are in need of assistance, of which 1.5 million are displaced. Still today, massacres continue and we see no end to the plight of so many innocent Syrians.
We have facilitated a dialogue with the opposition groups and we ask them again to set aside their differences and agree on this shared platform of principles, particularly where we can see that they can work together in support of the people of Syria and, of course, building on our approach on human rights to ensure that all are included regardless of faith, gender and so on.
We also have to keep up the economic pressure as well. We have had 17 rounds of sanctions. We discussed at the weekend the need to see what more we can do and, as we do in all our sanctions, to make sure that they are being as effective as possible. We will move without further delay; the work has already started to see what more now could be done.
As honourable Members will be aware, accountability for the crimes that have taken place requires our full attention. These atrocities cannot go unpunished and we have been prominent in calling for a strong response to the systematic and widespread violations of human rights, to combat impunity and hold accountable those responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria. Through the current human rights council session, we will push this forward. We have proposed to provide support to enhance that accountability, the efforts of the independent commission of inquiry, which we want to see extended, and other UN bodies and mechanisms.
It is, of course, incredibly difficult to predict the end of this crisis. We have started the planning for the transition, preparing the set of actions at EU level in which we can add value from day one and to coordinate that with our Member States and international organisations. That means ensuring that we have the capacity to increase our presence inside Syria as soon as the situation allows. It means leading on and working towards effective donor coordination and starting to prepare for a very rapid post-conflict needs assessment. All these things need to be done as well and are being done now. It means setting aside the funds that we are going to need to be able to do this because, as well as the additional support for humanitarian aid, we have to find the resources to be able to support the people and to support the transition that is going to be moving forward.
All I can say to end is that we have to begin with the principles that we hold dear, that the future of Syria belongs to the Syrian people, and we have to help them in every possible way that we can. We have engaged in every aspect of trying to find solutions – diplomatic, political – working with Member States to ensure that we are absolutely determined in supporting the efforts of the Security Council, the efforts to bring a common position that will enable the United Nations to move forward and efforts to see what can be done to support the countries of the region, which are, as we speak, dealing with the impact in every possible way and, in doing so, to be able to put the resources behind the words and actually try and help find a solution for the people of Syria.
I begin by saying to you that the humanitarian track is an absolute priority. We have to work closely with the neighbouring countries to coordinate and help in the massive challenge of refugees leaving and those who are displaced internally. Over these last two or three days, I have spoken yet again to the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Jordan. I also met the Prime Minister of Lebanon to talk about the challenges that they face and to try and offer additional support.
I think Turkey is doing a very impressive job in hosting the refugees, but they are flowing in greater numbers and that is becoming a big difficulty. As the Foreign Minister said to me, it takes a month to build a camp properly but only a very short time to fill it. Refugees, particularly those in Jordan and Lebanon, are being hosted outside camps – in families, in schools – and it is having a greater impact, too, on the services that they need to offer and there is a real need for increased support.
You have seen that Commissioner Georgieva announced over the weekend an additional EUR 50 million of humanitarian funding, which puts us at the point of a contribution from the Commission of EUR 168 million and a total of EUR 240 million across the European Union.
It is also really important, as well as providing the resources, a lot of which is going through NGOs that are providing absolutely vital support on the ground, that we have assisted the Syrian Humanitarian Forum, which exists under the leadership of the United Nations, and that we are providing support for civil society through our neighbourhood policy instruments, both internally and to those who have fled to neighbouring countries, to try and help them to develop and support the civil society needs across the country.
As I have said, we have children that we are supporting in Jordan and in Lebanon, through the UN High Commission for Refugees, to help the capacity of the institutions and local communities that are working with about 300 schools to support children who are now coming in and who need school. As I have said many times before, we should never underestimate the importance of school and education for children who are traumatised by these terrible circumstances and of helping them to have some sense of normality in their lives.
Of course, we have suspended all our work with the Syrian Government but have stepped up assistance through the human rights organisations in the fields of activists; the networking and advocacy and a number of our contracts in Syria are still in place.
So we are still preparing additional funds in order to be able to support the humanitarian relief across all the things that I mentioned – education, food, water, support for people and organisational support. But as you will be the first to say to me, that is not going to end the crisis and we face a very dangerous stalemate with each side seeming to be convinced that the war may turn to their advantage. There could be more violence and suffering and the most radical elements on all sides will become stronger, bringing further militarisation and the risk of sectarian violence. We also are aware of the threat of chemical weapons, and that is being monitored extremely closely."@en1
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